In automobiles, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, minivans and related vehicles, a cowl louver and its underlying cowl panel or related component act together to provide a structural coupling and aerodynamic fairing for an exterior region of the vehicle that is situated between a hood that covers a forward engine compartment and a windshield that provides passenger compartment isolation. One function of the cowl louver is to provide management of the air and water that is present in the ambient environment that is adjacent the forward engine and passenger compartments. By way of example, one or both of the cowl louver and the cowl panel include shaped troughs or related liquid flowpaths to convey accumulated water away from the hood, windshield and other parts of the vehicle. Relatedly, one or both of the cowl louver and the cowl panel may include ducts or related air flowpaths to introduce ambient air to the passenger compartment. Moreover, one or both of the cowl louver and the cowl panel may include sealing features in order to provide fluid isolation between the atmosphere that is present in the engine and passenger compartments. In addition, the placement of the cowl louver is such that is may provide one or more of a mounting location or pivot point for one or more motorized windshield wiper units and windshield wiper spray ports both of which are used to provide windshield cleaning functions.
Conventional ice scrapers are used for clearing ice, snow and debris from the windshield and surrounding glass parts of a vehicle. Typically there is no storage for this item in or on the vehicle that is both convenient and secure, which in turn leads to the scraper often being lost or misplaced.